A fire hose is conventionally deployed with some care before water pressure is applied to it. A tightly wound or improperly bundled hose tends to kink when water pressure is applied, cutting off the flow of water through the hose. Unfortunately, spreading out the hose requires both time and working space, both of which are in especially short supply during a structural fire.
In a conventional arrangement, a section of fire hose is straightened out toward the fire, doubled back, and then doubled back again to proceed toward the fire. In such an arrangement, a double loop of fire hose is spread out without sharp kinks. However, the double loop requires a long section of working space. In a structural fire where working space is limited, such an arrangement is unwieldy and sometime impossible to use.
When fighting a fire in a stairwell, firefighters conventionally extend a section of fire hose down the stairs in a single loop. They then pull the hose up from the stairs from one end of the hose section as they advance toward the fire. Such a technique requires a long section of heavy, water-filled hose to be pulled up and out from the stairs.
In another conventional technique, firefighters extend a dry section of fire hose up a flight of stairs in a single loop. They then pull the hose down from the stairs from one end of the hose section while advancing toward the fire. Such a technique can be dangerous because it requires a firefighter to climb the stairs and be above the fire while laying out the hose in this manner.
When the firefighters have finished using the fire hose, they must roll it up or bundle it for storage. The format in which the hose is stored depends on the manner in which it is intended to next be deployed. A compact hose roll, commonly known as a "doughnut roll," may be used to store the hose in a compact format, although the hose must be methodically spread out before water pressure is applied to it.
The expanded hose coil is used in wildland firefighting. In this arrangement, the hose is coiled up with a radius that is large enough to prevent kinking of the hose. The expanded hose coil may then be folded up into a compact package for transportation to another wildland fire.
Although devices having extension arms for rolling up fire hose into an expanded hose coil are known, such devices are unsatisfactory for use generally, and specifically in fighting structural fires. Fire hose used in fighting structural fires is generally of a larger diameter than hose used in wildland firefighting. Expanded hose coils wound with known devices have inadequate radius to be suitable for such hose. Inadequate safety of such devices remains a concern because the extension arms have the potential to cause injury if the hose unrolls suddenly. In addition, such devices lack the compactness and versatility required of firefighting tools.